Cloudways survey: 76% of digital businesses say AI search already cut their traffic

Cloudways, the managed-hosting brand owned by DigitalOcean, published a report on October 20 drawn from a Censuswide survey of 1,000 digital and e-commerce decision-makers in the UK and US, fielded June 24–29. In it, 76% of respondents said AI-generated search experiences have already reduced their website traffic over the past 12 months, and 82% said AI-powered recommendations are changing how customers find brands, per Cloudways. Separately, 80% said technical website performance now matters more to visibility than content alone, and 77% said traditional SEO alone is no longer enough.